14th Birthday
by Martianlightsaber
Summary: Book!Will wakes up on his 14th birthday to find himself in the universe of movie!Will, and much confusion ensues... warning: spoilers for the movie and moviebashing


_I'm sure those TDiR book fans who have watched "The Seeker" have a great many misgivings with the movie, so here's my take on it. I've taken quite a lot of liberty with the movie timeline because I honestly don't remember what the sequence of events was. Inspired by celticfox's "Movie Night"._

* * *

Will woke on the morning of his 14th birthday to find his legs cramped and his back aching abominably. _Why?_ He thought blearily as he peered around his attic-room from a strangely low position. He had the vague feeling that something was wrong when instead of the comforting presence of Stephen's naval artifacts, he saw shelf upon shelf of dusty boxes. He scrambled up from his position on the floor only to realize that he had, in fact, been sleeping on the floor.

After the initial confusion, he concluded reasonably that Time must merely have shifted, as it had on his 11th birthday when he had first come to power, though for the first time since then, he could not quite fathom why. He lifted his hand in a reflex action to brush his heavy fringe away from his forehead, again to find that that too has disappeared. _Odd_ he thought, and shrugged it off as a necessary change in wardrobe for whatever time he was in, just as he had spontaneously appeared in a tunic during the concealing of the Signs.

He tumbled down to the kitchen to find a household not dissimilar to his own, with older twin teenage boys tossing a ball to each other on the staircase and a lady, presumably their mother, bustling about in the kitchen. He noted that their television was miraculously flat and the characters moving about the screen were being controlled by the girl and boy seated on the floor.

"Will!" the young girl cried joyfully when she noticed him standing on the landing above. "Happy Birthday!"

The twins joined in with a half-hearted birthday wish as he made his way down the stairs and another older boy had appeared slightly farther up the landing and tossed him a "Happy 13th" card, saying something about a mistake in the numbering.

Will calmed his thoughts in search of guidance from the Light, as it had served him well in his previous tasks, allowing him to divine the right things to say and the right times to act. Unfortunately, this time he found none. It was unsettling how they all acted as though they all knew him, as though he were part of this foreign family. _They sound somewhat like Uncle Bill from America_ he pondered, before being caught in a bear hug from the youngest girl.

"You're in a daze Will. Gwen, get off him and let him have his breakfast. Paul, Robin, Max, can you ask your father to get down here for some breakfast himself before he starves himself over physics?"

_Gwen? Paul? Robin? Max?_ _This has to be some twisted nightmare. I'm not awake! The Dark is manipulating memories of my family! _ Will thought in a panic, recalling the way they had affected his family that winter three years ago in a bid to distract him from his task for the Light. He had already concluded that this alter ego of his really _was_ having his birthday today, but was extremely disconcerted by the fact that no one really seemed to care. _This has to be the work of the Dark, but how? They were vanquished!_ Will's mind reeled as he slid into a seat at the table and eyed the bowl of dry cereal before him with great suspicion. Without the love and support he had from his family and his own desire to protect them, he would never have been able to serve the Light as well as he had.

However he had no time to dwell on the possible motive of the Dark for putting him through this seemingly harmless alternate reality, when the door burst open with two old men balancing a Christmas tree on their shoulders. His 'father' had chosen this time to appear and greet them as Dawson and George. The rest of the morning passed in a blur as Will tried to orient himself to the workings of this rather disjoint and uncommunicative family, occasionally being teased for his silence by the two twin brothers and subsequently defended by the younger girl. Will simply couldn't bring himself to think of them by the same names as his own brothers and sisters. Once or twice 'Dawson' and 'George' had eyeballed him but he really didn't know what to make of it. They were not the Old Ones he had grown to trust and he was still completely baffled as to why the Dark would bother with such an elaborate charade.

Some time later he was introduced to the world of webcam and was fascinated by how the family was able to talk to 'Stephen' through that contraption. Someone tossed him the present from said brother – a belt with circles quartered by a cross. Once everyone scattered, Will sat on the floor deep in thought, trying to fathom a way out of the situation he had found himself in. He had discovered that the television malfunctioned in much the same way as it had on his 11th birthday but it didn't seem to hold with other electronic devices such as the computer and the music player he had learned was called an iPod. There was also no good reason that his 'brother' should know anything about the sign of the Light. Realizing the sudden din around him meant that everyone was preparing to leave, he promptly followed suit and grabbed what he assumed was his coat.

The party at Miss Greythorne's manor was a typical party with drinks and people standing around to talk. Assuming this alternate reality was set in the future, he figured that parties never changed too much. He spotted Maggie Barnes, the witch girl, flirting with… James?? Finding the events of the day too much to bear, he excused himself and took a walk outside, finding himself in an unfamiliar, ominous lane.

Will was almost relieved to soon hear the sound of hoof beats and the familiar face of the Dark Rider. _Almost_. When said figure came into view, Will did a double-take and would have collapsed in the snow were it not for the nearby tree trunk. The Rider was riding a _white horse_. He didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. Surely the Dark would not commit such a travesty against its own Lord! Standing there in stunned silence, Will and the Rider merely stared each other down as they waited for the rest of the 'Old Ones' to appear on cue.

And appear on cue they did, stepping out of the woods so casually it was as though they were there all along. They probably were. The one who introduced himself as Merriman proceeded to exchange pseudo threats with the Rider, who promptly left after sneering menacingly, then turned to Will and started explaining that he was part of the circle of Old Ones; an explanation to which Will had to restrain from rolling his eyes. They then traipsed down an Old Way (which Will recognized at once, but none of the others seemed to think it of importance to mention to a "newly awakened") and arrived before a Great Hall. Not _the_ Great Hall but a pretty grand one nonetheless, in the middle of an unidentifiable deciduous forest. The door was carved with patterns of spirals which appeared to twirl on their own accord if one stared at them too long, and it was the only sign Will had seen so far of a sliver of magic in this world.

Will vaguely heard someone saying something about 5 days to collect the signs. _5 days?! They had to be kidding._ 'Merriman' then proceeded to say something about 'Old English, written in the 70s' (A/N: go read the interviews with actor Ian McShane to get this one). Only when Will recognized the old and forgotten circle of candle-stands at the far end of the hall did it occur to him what he had to do. Having long since tuned out the babblings of the pseudo Old Ones, he spread his fingers wide, freezing time, and waited.

"Took you long enough to figure that out Stanton. It seems your senses have grown rusty," a deep voice resonated from the shadows.

"That was a _test_?" Will spluttered indignantly, turning to face the real Merriman as he calmly descended the stairs. He had thought Merriman would be annoyed to be called out of Avalon to wrangle him out of his predicament, but it honestly hadn't occurred to him that the Light would be behind the whole fiasco, just as he hadn't known that the Light had sent him hepatitis just to get him to Wales. He scowled for a bit, feeling very much like a little kid rather than an Old One.

Merriman chuckled, seeing the confused expression on Will's face. "No my watchman, this was not the Light's doing, nor the Dark's, but Man's."

When the confused expression stayed, he continued, "Do you remember when I told you that the Old Ones leave few records? All that you have seen today are what men believe about the Dark and the Light – a fairy tale you might say. I had once told Barney, Jane and Simon that fairy tales are merely forgotten history, garbled and modified till everyone believes them to be works of fiction. This is what the world of men sees of the epic battle between the Light and the Dark, a version so flawed that none who see it will believe it. The written records, however, are a good deal more accurate, and for all the efforts of the Old Ones to erase the memories of men, the lady Cooper has surpassed these barriers, and we as Old Ones do not fight destiny, for that is of the High Magic and beyond our control. Come, let us see men's portrayal of our battle and come away enlightened and very likely, amused."

With a wry grin, Will took Merriman's hand and allowed himself to be whisked through time and space by the first of the Old Ones, appearing once more in a dark hall – of the cinema. The movie continued from where Will had left, in the scene of the Great Hall, though the characters were now unfrozen and animated, declaring something about how Will was the only one who could read some book written in a spiral shape. He laughed at the preposterous portrayal of Merriman and wondered briefly if his mentor would be displeased with it. His own character was as unlike himself as he could imagine – blond, short-haired, sharp angular-faced, interested in older girls and shy with his family. He cringed at the scene where icicles adorned the ceiling of the Greythorne manor, thinking it incredibly stupid that the Rider should declare him a strong opponent merely for pushing his father out of the way of an icicle of doom. The Walker did not seem to exist in this movie, and the Signs appeared in a wholly random fashion, with no elemental symbolism at all. Both Will and Merriman verily rolled their eyes at the line about the sixth sign being Will's soul.

The two Old Ones, first and last, stayed in their seats as the credits rolled, watching the small audience file out. It had certainly been an amusing show, although Will detested the sheer shallowness of mind of his on-screen self. When the theatre was all but empty, Merriman rose and faced Will gravely.

"It has served its purpose, to trivialize the facts so that men may not think of magic to solve their problems. If you have seen the world today, you will know that Man has created his own magic through technology that you would not even dream of in your day. This is not long in the future and I daresay you will not have to wait long to see it. Fare well, my watchman, and believe in yourself."

With a gentle smile crinkling his lined face, Merriman disappeared before Will could say another word. _But how did I end up in the movie to begin with?_ He pondered, only to have a voice in his mind respond in Old Speech,_'That, you will have to find out for yourself'_.

Will thought he saw the twinkling of eyes before him, so he blinked and found himself standing in his attic bedroom facing a dark window, with the stars glinting in the background. The clock read 7, but there was still no hint of sunlight on Midwinter's day, and snow was falling gently, quite unlike the storm that had enveloped the town on his 11th birthday.

"_That_ excited about your birthday Will?"

Will started slightly before he remembered that he'd asked Stephen to stay with him for the night. He knew it sounded silly for a 14-year-old to ask that of an older brother but it was a rare thing for Stephen to be back from the Navy during his birthday and the attic really was Stephen's room after all.

"Oh, hey Steve. Yeah," he nodded, gesturing to the light flakes drifting onto the windowsill. "And I got my wish too!"

"Thought you got your wish three years ago, Mum said there was more snow than the town's ever seen before remember?"

"I asked for snow, not a life-threatening blizzard!" Will twisted his face into a comical scowl, hoping that the unpleasant memories of that Christmas would not show. Stephen punched his youngest brother lightly on the arm and laughed at Will's reaction.

They both turned back to the window, watching the snow fall in a companionable silence, and Will wondered how he could have coped with his duties as an Old One without his brothers and sisters beside him, supporting him and loving him even though they didn't know what he was. He also wondered what kind of lives people of the future had, for their portrayals of families to be so cold and detached.

With that thought hanging in his mind, the sun rose above the white fields of Huntercombe, its slanting rays illuminating the rooftops in the village, and the aroma of frying bacon wafted up to the room to herald this celebrated day.


End file.
